Reversal
by Airstream Raven
Summary: One-reel Grand Summary: Something's the matter with Cobb. Miles doesn't know what; all he knows is that his son-in-law is in danger, and so are the people with whom Cobb last shared dreams with.
1. Chapter 1

**Reversal**

Miles wasted no time getting on the phone. His fingers deftly dialed the numbers of Cobb's inception team; he exhibited surprising dexterity for his age.  
The reactions he'd got were varied: Eames had cursed a bit at him, for it was late; Ariadne, also awakened, had uttered sentences punctuated by yawns. Yusuf, in Mombasa, was wide awake and conversationally unremarkable. And Arthur took the news in his impeccably professional manner.  
Miles only said two things to them: "Come to Paris straightaway. There is something wrong with my son-in-law, and as a result you are involved, too."  
The reactions to that were all identical.  
Miles lingered on the phone with Arthur, having called the others first. Arthur had asked Miles no questions- in fact, he was about to hang up, when Miles stopped him.  
"Arthur, wait."  
Arthur kept the phone to his ear.  
"I'm going to need you to call your sister," said Miles.  
"My siste- Adrian?" said Arthur brusquely.  
"Yes. She's going to be invaluable to us," Miles replied.  
"W- we..." Arthur stammered. He paused. "We haven't spoken in years."  
Arthur's apprehension poured over the phone and pooled in Miles' ear.  
"That won't be a problem, will it?" Miles asked wryly.  
Arthur was silent on the other line.  
"...I don't even know where she is," he lied.  
"We both know that's not true," said Miles.  
Arthur sighed. "All right."  
"How soon can she be in Paris?" Miles inquired.  
Arthur gave a huff of laughter.  
"Knowing her, three days. At most," he said.  
"Arthur?" Miles hesitated. "...Will there be a... problem?"  
"No." The word dropped into Miles' ear like a stone.  
"All right," said Miles dubiously.  
"Good night, Miles," said Arthur coldly, closing the conversation.  
"Good night," answered Miles. "And, Arthur?"  
Arthur's silence permitted him to speak.  
"Thank you," said Miles.  
They hung up.

The team assembled in Miles' classroom three days after the phone call. Greetings were tersely exchanged in order to kill time- Miles wouldn't tell them what was happening until they had all assembled.  
Arthur had been the first to arrive.  
His stiff pleasantries had cut off abruptly as he became aware of a figure that appeared at the classroom door. It was a woman, wearing a black overcoat and carrying a messenger bag slung over her chest from her left shoulder. She had deep brown hair that reached her shoulders- her face was nearly identical to Arthur's. Her long, lithe thumbs were hooked in the pockets of her coat.  
She descended to Miles' desk and approached Arthur.  
They stared at each other for some time, a nearly perfect mirror image, before she broke the silence.  
"...Art?" she asked.  
"...Adri?" he queried in reply.  
They did not embrace.


	2. Chapter 2

**Reversal**

One-reel Grand Summary: Miles explains the situation to the best of  
his knowledge and gives Adrian purpose.

Ariadne was surprised that the room didn't implode from the polarity radiating from Arthur and the woman standing in front of him. She was just as surprised that "Art" had let the pet name infraction fly.  
No one wanted to break the silence that stretched for miles and years between the point man and the newcomer, both of whom seemed aware that they had created a vacuum which kept everyone else awkwardly on their toes, trying not to disturb anything.  
Ariadne was the first to speak.  
"You know each other," she said feebly, cracking a half-hearted smile at Arthur and his female facsimile.  
The corner of Arthur's mouth turned upwards. "Yes," he said, humoring her. "This is my sister, Adrian."  
"What do you do?" said Ariadne to Adrian. Her voice sounded faintly accusatory. She was surprised at it.  
Adrian's face mirrored Arthur's, right down to the small smile.  
"I'm an interior point woman," she said, "I specialize in memory. Your recollections are my dossiers." As Adrian said the last word everyone turned to Arthur, who was notorious for lugging around colossal heaps of paper for which the word "dossier" was far too meek, and gave him a Look.  
Arthur glared back at all of them, comically.  
"Thank you all for coming here today," said Miles. "Memories are the focal point for this meeting- specifically, Dom Cobb's." His son-in-law's name dropped from his mouth like a boulder. He and Adrian were the only ones whose faces displayed understanding, although Adrian's expression was still inquisitive.  
"Cobb appears to be under attack," said Miles.  
Before he could go on, Eames interrupted: "Isn't that a bit melodramatic, Miles?"  
"Perhaps, but that is how it appears to be," replied Miles irritably. "Cobb denies that anything is wrong, but each time we've spoken on the phone he sounds tense, and Phillipa told me that he keeps finding little objects that scare him, all around the house."  
"Could she be making things up?" Arthur asked. "He might be disoriented from the inception job, or unfamiliar with his house from being away for so long, and keeps coming across things that he thinks shouldn't be there."  
"Phillipa is quite astute," said Miles. "She observes things with clarity, and isn't usually wrong."  
Arthur looked skeptical, but said nothing.  
"Cobb's behavior leads me to conclude that he is being assaulted with memories," continued Miles. "Small things that make him nervous, cropping up all over his house? Someone is baiting him with things he almost remembers."  
"You seem very sure," said Yusuf.  
"Absolutely," said Miles. "I've done the same thing before." Miles ignored the looks that bounced off of him.  
"And where do we come in?" Ariadne queried.  
"Whoever is doing this may comb your memories and draw details from jobs you've done with Cobb in the past, to seem omniscient. Those clues may be used against our perpetrator, because he clearly knows Cobb well enough to know what scares him. We need to access your memories in order to see if they match the hints that continue to plague my son-in-law."  
"Oh," said Ariadne. "That's interesting."  
Arthur seemed to notice that Ariadne was suffering, conversationally. She bit her lip and shoved her hands in her pockets sullenly, hoping she didn't slip up before either of the impassive point people. It would be positively mortifying.  
"Adrian will sift through your memories of Cobb for anything prominent," clarified Miles. "We'll check for objects that coincide with your memories, and maybe pick up clues as to who this is. But for that to happen, you'll have to completely let Adrian in. She has to know your mind better than your significant other, better than your therapist, better than anyone."  
Arthur snorted. He'd heard that from another Cobb, several months earlier. It appeared to be a beloved catchphrase.  
"Why aren't you searching our memories?" Ariadne asked argumentatively. She involuntarily shot Adrian a sidelong glance, which the Interior point woman did not notice.  
"My dear girl," replied Miles, "It should be obvious. I'm not trained in Interior."  
"What about Cobb?" asked Eames perceptively. "Does he know about this?"  
"I've called him and asked him to come visit Paris," Miles answered. He knows nothing. He is bringing his children."  
A collective, unspoken chorus of "Oh boy" wafted up to the high ceiling of the classroom.  
Miles looked around at the dreamers assembled before him, taking in the expertise that he read in the lines of their bodies. His knees almost gave with relief as he thought that if anyone could save his son, it would be these. Conversely, if these people couldn't save Cobb from his own past... no one could.


	3. Chapter 3

Reversal

One-Reel Grand Summary: SUPER TIME ELAPSE  
Dreaming-Place life. Some foreshadowing.  
Cobb Arrives, Learns, and Disbelieves Loudly. James Hides Behind Philippa. Philippa is Unimpressed. Arthur Disabuses Cobb of his Radical Notions.

Only a week and a half had passed from the time that Miles had called the team together to sift through their dream-memories, but Ariadne felt as if it had been much longer. She had once again fallen into the routine of spending so much time at the dreaming-place that she might as well live there. Yusuf actually _did_ live there, not caring to Go Out into Parisian Society and Make his Own Acquaintances with which he might spend his nights. Yusuf slept (or, rather, recharged, since he and his teammates spent much of the day sleeping with the aid of the PASIV) in a tangle of tubes and a jumble of vials. He did not care to spend much time away from his implements. Ariadne found it peculiar, but did not comment. Eames found it peculiar, and did comment.  
Arthur said nothing.  
Arthur had been saying nothing for some time, save for the necessities of daily speech. It was driving Ariadne up the wall. She noticed that Arthur had ceased to speak shortly after his... sister... had arrived. Shell shock. Apparently they hadn't spoken in ages. Ariadne was dying to know why.  
She was sitting at her station, pondering these things, when Arthur came up to her. She flinched, almost, and sat up attentively.  
"Hi, Arthur," she said unremarkably. "What can I do for you?"  
Arthur said nothing. He merely stared at her.  
"Arthur, you're being creepy," Ariadne said, and still he stared at her. She stood up, and awoke with a start with her head resting on her elbows, propped up against her latest memory-maze. She gave a soft groan as she realized she still hadn't fully acclimatized to the use of somnacin and it lingered a bit in her system, causing her to fall asleep occasionally. Arthur in fact was across the room, talking animatedly to Miles. Ariadne could not hear much of the conversation, but she picked up parts of it.  
"Cobb is in the airport right now," said Miles, "and we don't have time for this."  
"Then there's no time to waste, is there?" said Arthur acerbically, and seized his coat as he strode to the door.

-

Miles felt a sense of slight unreality as he waited for Cobb in the airport terminal. He had done an identical thing some time ago, after his son-in-law had been cleared of all charges. This time, the people disembarking with Cobb were decidedly smaller, and far cuter, than those who'd left with him then. Miles dug his fingers into his totem out of force of habit, and watched for his son-in-law.  
Arthur spotted them first, Cobb's head bobbing up and down as his son tugged on one hand and his daughter skipped on the other. Their heads were sandy, like their father's, and their eyes dark, like their mother's.  
"Dom!" cried Miles, waving. Cobb looked up and almost smiled, until he laid eyes on Arthur. The inception job flooded through his head, and his fingers loosened imperceptibly on those of his children.  
"Miles," he murmured in greeting, and barely glanced at Arthur. When Cobb's eyes did briefly rest on Arthur's closed face, they were not unkind.  
James and Philippa, on the other hand, were exuberant. "Papa!" yelled James, his dark eyes glittering at Miles, and Philippa ran straight to Arthur and hugged him 'round the waist. Arthur cleared his throat. "I missed you too?" he said, faintly perturbed. Philippa didn't mind.  
"Let's go," said Miles, and led them to the baggage claim.

As soon as Arthur had captured the last of Cobb's itinerant baggage, Cobb said, "Miles. Why am I here?"  
Miles, who was not expecting the question, hesitated.  
"I'm sick of memories, Miles," Cobb pressed on, "and Paris is full of them. Why am I here?"  
"You're here because you remember," replied Miles philosophically, answering without giving anything away. He wanted to wait before explaining to Cobb so that his grandchildren wouldn't have to know.  
"Of course I remember!" snapped Cobb. "I remember everything. Why am I here? Why is Arthur here? What sort of an answer is 'you're here because you remember'?"  
"Cobb..." said Miles. "Are you sure you really remember?" He stared meaningfully at Cobb, daring him to disagree.  
"Daddy, calm down," said Philippa candidly, and Miles' heart went out to her. Cobb, to his credit, did not wheel and glare at her, instead glaring at Miles.  
Miles took a deep breath. "Cobb... you're here because someone is baiting you. Memory-traps." Cobb looked daggers at him and fumed.  
"Memory-traps..." he whispered, and then said, "Is that what you think? I'm being baited by memory-traps?"  
"They're working," Miles whispered back, a frown creasing his forehead.  
"You think I'm weak? That I can fall to a couple little memory-traps?" Cobb barked. "You think I can't handle it?"  
"Cobb, we want to help you," began Miles, but Cobb interrupted, his bared teeth flashing.  
"You brought me here for therapy?" he snarled. James gave a soft squeal and hid behind Philippa, who reached 'round and grabbed his hand soothingly. James dragged her over to where Miles was standing and positioned her and his grandfather in front of him. Philippa watched impassively.  
Arthur noted the children's reaction and laid onto Cobb without hesitation. He seized Cobb's collar and pulled him in close, so that their faces were inches away.  
"Cobb, shut up. You're attracting attention. You're not making sense. You'll _remember_," he said, putting extra emphasis on the word, "the symptoms of memory-traps. Paranoia. Anger. Distrust. Jesus, Cobb. Stop scaring your children, and let Miles help you." Arthur thrust the fuming Cobb away from him and scooped up his friend's luggage. "I'll go for the car," he said, and vanished into the crowd.


	4. Chapter 4

RE-INVIGORATION PENDING, HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS


End file.
